welcome back to the big picture i'm tom hartman coming up in this half hour based on what the government tells you and what they mean stream media reports to you you probably think america is out of iraq right rob why are american special forces back in iraq and when will this miserable chapter in american history finally be finished also we all know mitt romney would have no foreign policy of it in the head and now fox news is trying to make president obama look like a foreign policy quack too is this the right's plan the heading into november and their so-called october surprise for american voters and from paper and pens to computers and desk chairs staples business model as all of your office needs

covered unfortunately staples business model has the destruction of the american economy covered to tell you why and i still eat it. most of the rest of the news this week the two thousand and three u.s. soldier was killed in afghanistan this is the nation's longest running war and it's also the forgotten war the two thousand death of an american soldier didn't get near the attention it deserves in our corporate media nor did how many afghan civilians have been killed in this war the u.n. estimates that more than thirteen thousand innocent afghan civilians have died so far although the u.n. only started keeping track in two thousand and seven six years after the war started so the numbers probably much closer to twenty thousand or maybe even many more than that a lot of dead innocent men women and children today would turn. in the middle east

the mainstream media asked silly questions about the muslim world like why do they hate us maybe it has something to do with those civilian death tolls it's becoming increasingly creasy only obvious that drone warfare is a real part of that problem in the heels of a new report by stanford a new york university law professors that exposed the thousands of people killed in drone strikes in pakistan and the link between these strikes and anti-american sentiment in pakistani foreign minister has come out to blame the drones for anti-american sentiment in her country should be too difficult to understand that if you try to win the hearts and minds struggle in the middle east incessantly hovering lethal drones above those same hearts and minds is not such a great idea so how do we reconcile all of this tom hayden joins me now he's the director of the peace and justice resource center and activist and author former california state senator tom welcome back tom always good to be here thank you it's always a pleasure an honor to have you with us two thousand now are dead two thousand american soldiers are dead in afghanistan not to mention tens of thousands of

afghans why are we still there. where are we in afghanistan. it's easy to step in the doggy do and hard to step out it's just. that simple it's a quagmire it's the graveyard of empires as they say. for political reasons if not other reasons obama promised to escalate there to take care of the agenda after nine eleven he also promised to. pull the troops out the surge troops thirty three thousand he's doing that there are sixty eight thousand to go. the any political settlement with the taliban any negotiated settlement. has hit a standstill over partisan politics back in washington and so we're winding down

the war in afghanistan without a political settlement and i think that's why obama chose twenty fourteen as the pullout date because there's going to be a real real mess after the november elections i think you're absolutely right you have a new piece in the nation about what's happening in iraq the war that's supposed to be over what's the latest. i think it's more or less over but the conflict between. you know the majority shia government and the minority sunni this is still boiling and sunnies are obviously involved in two wars one is an insurgency against the government in baghdad and the other is support for the sony's right over the border in syria and i noticed something last week one hundred sixty six lines down in the inside page of the new york times that said that there was a special forces unit operating in iraq i couldn't believe it i thought we were out

of iraq i don't know how large it is i don't know what its mission is i don't know . what the marching orders are and i'm certainly not saying that we're about to reinvade iraq we don't have the people power or the resources or the popular support but maybe maybe they're worried about another benghazi type attack on a u.s. embassy and people in the media should ask the pentagon what's the purpose of these troops because they're supposed to be gone at the agreed and i think it's worth remembering that you know she's to a few special forces you know back in vietnam started that whole thing how do progresses reconcile the drone warfare going on with the need to realize. if for nothing else the supreme court. i don't think they do i think some peace activists are over in pakistan now joining

a march against the drone attacks which is very courageous and. the drone attacks are a violation of pakistan's sovereignty. and my own view is that the drone attacks. will not end until there's a settlement in afghanistan and pakistan that gives a cover for the administration to stop them i don't think of them as a brave new world entirely although some people do i i think when you take out the ground troops which was important that left obama with drones or nothing and he started down this path of using drones against the. groups that the american people are convinced are the terrorist enemies and there's been a lot of suppression of about civilian casualties there's been a lot of low balling the numbers. there's plenty of studies that show for everybody

that you kill in pakistan you infuriate antagonize. hundreds and thousands of other people so from any point of view the drone attacks are very counterproductive except from the point of view of protecting in the ventral american withdrawal politically that's that's all they are and not to mention the interests of the drone manufacturers and their and their buddies the drone but the manufacturers oh yeah it washington is occupied by many. constructors because everywhere you look out of washington there they are in these little you're corporate buildings and here they come in with their briefcases and if if you're done with one war they've got another one for you to fight it's a it's unbelievable lobbying force and it's well distributed in congressional districts around the country yes and intentionally so tom hayden thank you so much

for the great reporting you're doing and for being with us tonight thanks. stain on foreign policy with polls turning against them republicans are getting desperate in their attacks on president obama with the help of their mouthpiece fox so-called news republicans have been hammering obama over the last few weeks about his administration's handling of the attacks on the u.s. consulate in benghazi libya with hours of coverage devoted to the story fox is hoping to paint the president as weak or incompetent on foreign policy and monday republican congresswoman marsha blackburn appeared on fox to equate the president's handling of libya to watergate. being gaza gate is the right kind of charm for this i think this is very very serious probably more serious than watergate. so is this the strategy heading into november joining me now is craig unger contributing editor of vanity fair vanity fair magazine and author of the book boss rove inside karl rove's secret kingdom of power a brilliant book by the way i strongly recommend credit welcome back great to be

back tom what information thank you for joining us what information do you have on the republicans using a soap. called jimmy carter strategy and president obama well i see the hand of call rove behind this again and rove has been the party boss has become the party boss of the republican party he is not out front he's just a talking head on fox to a lot of people but he controls about a billion dollars in super pac funds and there was a meeting in washington earlier this week in which the republicans a began to unveil what they're calling the jimmy carter strategy and they're attacking and this is a typical rove tack a tactic attacking obama at his strong point and then you may recall they did that with john kerry in two thousand and four with the swift boat veterans for truth and it looks to me like rove is thinking this is two thousand and four all over again and that was his last presidential campaign what is this really just

a variation on darrell isis failed attempt to harm the obama administration earlier with his now discredited fast and furious which i mean you know that didn't outside of the fox a fear that didn't really seem to catch hold any do you think that this well yeah i do i you know i think they're desperately in search of a narrative if you go back to the republican convention and do a pop quiz what was the message what was the narrative coming out of that you know it's really hard to remember the narrative was we built it and that sort of failed and the republican campaign got knocked out of the box with a one two punch i think the first was the democratic convention and bill clinton's very very successful speech and the second was the forty seven percent. video leak and that that has been seen at least three times as much as mitt romney's nomination speech so they are desperately in search of a narrative the economy has been what they were trying first that obama is

a failed president with regard to the economy that has now they're trying foreign policy ok you've been observing this stuff for a long time and you know these people very very well and you're you're the expert you wrote the book on karl rove do you think aid that they actually believe this is going to work or is this just a hail mary pass and b. do you think it might work. well i don't i don't think it will work and i just don't think libya is top of mind for the american people and and back in zero four the nation was under the shadow of nine eleven within the republican party the there are divided and there was a bitter dispute and stuart stevens with a romney adviser was sort of on the losing end of it he wanted to stick with the economy as the main attack line but others seem to believe this has a chance. if their plans fail and president obama is reelected do you think that they will use this libya gate as the canard for impeachment as an excuse for

impeachment well it depends obviously who controls congress i mean it looks like the republicans will probably still control the house i right now i don't see any evidence that they've turned up there what is the evidence there's no solid piece of intelligence that has come up so it's impossible to really discuss it intelligently ok craig unger thank you so much for being with us thanks for having me. coming up you know staples your friendly neighborhood office supply store that wants to make your life easier well its business model is actually making your life harder because it represents the cancer stage of capitalism i'll explain why and i still take.

some. if you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom hartman welcome to the big picture. here is mitt romney trying to figure out the name of that thing that many americans

call a dollar. i'm sorry i'm just a guy who cares an awful lot about my country you sir are a fool you know what kind of nightmare terrorist cells in your neighborhood all want to give us a the future is a monkey on the lip all the christian point you. can stick your beliefs up out of the. you know the corporate media distracts us from what you and i should care about because their profit driven industry that sells of sensationalistic garbage because of breaking news i'm having martin and we're going to break that. if. tanya than

our first comments and i comes from a viewer in arlington virginia who had this take on marriage equality and say something bigger than the sounders of this country on gay marriage free body i want to call you but he actually i want you to see what you're up to and i appreciate some things that you actually do write. founders of this country was. you know one thing and that's good but the second thing is god is bigger than the founders of this is of the united states in the america and he said go forth and multiply and i don't think you guys and you girls can do that so. very very ugly. ok so let me get this straight if people can't reproduce they shouldn't be allowed to marry so anybody who's post-menopausal whom divorce anybody who's sterile can produce children we should we should do sperm motility test before marriage licenses are right we should we should auto divorce people if they get to

me or tubal ligations how about people use birth control they're not reproducing aat they can't get married it's bizarre our final comment of the night comes from jay appleton posted on our tom hartman dot com message boards here's what they had to say about gas prices in america i believe the price of gasoline is now manipulated upwards as part of a corporate conspiracy to oppose any improvement in the economy and bring about a victory for their puppets romney and ryan exactly what the corporations are doing with their excessive cash on hand do not expand do not invest in till after the election but you know at first blush that sounds like just a wacky conspiracy theory corporate america is just sitting on their money just to make the economy bad and they are sitting on two trillion dollars here in the country and two three trillion dollars outside the country we know that but they're doing that just to make the economy bad so that president obama the democrats will be hurt sounds crazy but then you look at the u.s.

chamber of commerce the lobbying arm for these very very large corporations and they're pouring literally hundreds of millions of dollars into republican races in a defeating the president and these corporations are the ones supplying that money so maybe it's a wacky conspiracy theory and maybe you're on to. just . it's the good the bad in a very very raw kids so on damp trust slowly ugly. or that word is a real good chris blue clue is a punter for the minnesota vikings n.f.l. team and recently he came out in strong support of marriage equality however not everyone was happy about his endorsement minnesota state representative mary franson

a republican called out clue for attacking traditional marriage and she continued to attack marriage equality saying that homosexuality is not. in response to francis comments clude doubled down on his support of marriage equality and even offered to formally debate friends on the issue kudos to chris kluwe for standing up for the rights of millions of americans the bad congressman todd akin taken should be trying to win over female voters especially considering his controversial inflammatory judum of rape comments over the summer but apparently a can didn't get the message he was asked a town hall meeting why he voted against the lilly ledbetter fair pay act which makes it easier for women to challenge on equal pay a control the crowd quote i believe in free enterprise i don't think the government should be telling people what you pay and what you don't pay and quote other words congressman akin is indorsing the legalisation of discrimination in the workplace and a very very ugly sam zell zell

a businessman worth approximately four billion dollars was on c.m.t. see this morning in an interview a c.m.e. season ender ross sorkin zille argued that government benefits are disincentive i.z. struggling americans from wanting to be successful basically zol for the conservative notion that americans who receive any kind of government benefits of speed. lazy and unmotivated or get that way as a result of it and sells mind a middle class american who got laid off because his or her job was outsourced to some low wage country now has to take unemployment that person is lazy corporate tycoons like zell were paying their fair share of taxes america could easily invest in our infrastructure and our students that's a limited in most unemployment and ending a lot of the need for unemployment benefits and food stamps calling honest and hardworking americans who are just trying to survive lazy that is very very.

the business model of the office supply chain staples represents the cancer stage of capitalism it's also what mitt romney claims as one of his biggest accomplishments of bain capital expect to hear him mention it during the debates tomorrow so what exactly did romney accomplish at bain capital by investing in and growing staples i would argue one of his main accomplishments was the destruction of one slice of the american economy. consider this economies are like complex ecosystems with lots of energy dependent players and a set of basic rules in nature the wide range of players is called biodiversity entertained by varying ecosystems like the arctic and jungles and plains and the oceans and so on nature's ecosystem is also maintained by evolution creating

predator prey and other symbiotic relationship and the rules that govern nature's ecosystems are the rules of physics and biology when the rules are distorted by things like us cutting down rain forests and turning them into single crop farmland biodiversity crashes and eventually the entire ecosystem turns to desert. at the level of a single animal or a person when the natural interplay of various organs and parts of the body is overcome by a single line a cells rising up and taking over all the resources of the body we call that cancer in economies the rules of the economic ecosystem are created by governments and diversity is created by laws that prevent companies from becoming cancer sized or behaving cancer why we also put in place rules to prevent industries from becoming dominated by a small handful of companies that create the economic equivalent of replacing

a highly diverse forest with a million acres of corn that will eventually become desert dust bowl so back to staples when one company is able to become so big and destroy all of its competitors and economic diversity that too is a form of cancer an economic cancer we as a nation understood this about business for a century which is why senator john sherman a republican hairdos the sherman antitrust act an eight hundred ninety which says every person who shall monopolise or attempt to monopolize or combine or conspire with any other person or persons to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several states or with foreign nations shall be deemed guilty of a felony the point of the law is to keep small businesses alive and prevent any company or small handful of companies from becoming economic cancers or producing economic deserts or dustbowl as. we also prevented the worst kind of business

predation by saying that if you wanted to buy a business you had to do with your own money or if you borrowed money you were the one responsible to pay it back whether the business succeeded or failed you saw all these laws worked out pretty well in the century from senator sherman's time until the one nine hundred eighty s. and then ronald reagan blew it all up with reaganomics reagan oversaw the end of laws regulating mergers and acquisitions and that not only led to the m. and a mania of the one nine hundred eighty s. but also paved the way for mitt romney staples and the destruction of the american middle class at bain romney made money not by borrowing money him self or using his own money but by dumping the debt from the purchase of a company onto that company itself this led private equity vulture capitalists like romney when whether the company survived or die if the company survived it paid

back the debt and then bain made the money if the company went bankrupt but that went into bankruptcy with that and made bain made their money on the fees that they charged every step along the way meanwhile with reagan stopping the enforcement of the sherman antitrust act big companies sort of wiping out their smaller competitors. we saw it happen with restaurants hotels department stores gas stations i mean look across america you see the diversity that used to be such an important vibrant part of this country is just largely gone and then they went after the local office supply and stationery stores soon staples at put hundreds of these small mom and pop local stores out of business and replace them with giant big box stores that sell products made in low wage countries and perhaps most importantly pay their store employees all non-unionized just above the minimum wage

this is what mitt romney accomplished with staples he destroyed thousands of small family businesses and replace them with wages on the level of do you want fries with that. and today as dave johnson and truth reveals average staple salaries for job postings nationwide are fifty one percent lower than average salaries for all job postings the pay at staples appears to be around eight to ten dollars an hour that sixteen to twenty thousand a year certainly not enough to support a family or even pay rent in many areas nevermind buying food. is destruction of local mom and pop shops and the hurting of previously well paid workers into low wage jobs at massive transnational corporations this represents the cancer stage of capitalism and its standard bearer its base its campaign is mitt romney he used the new rules for mergers and acquisitions that reagan gave

him to become a half billion or. invested in big box giant staples which has wiped out large parts of the american small business landscape and now probably brag about staples in the debate on wednesday is that we accomplished something as those successes staples somehow qualifies him to be president of the united states and you know what staples should be a part of the debate it should be included in the question do we want cancer style capitalism do we want to continue to be a nation where all our small local businesses that pay well and are involved in the community are replaced by big box outfits the pay crap wages buy their products in the low wage countries and funnel all their profits to a very small handful of rich guy investors like romney and do we then want those rich guy investors to pay less than a half the income tax rate of working people because they get that special capital gains rate you know after they've done so much damage to our economy let's talk

about some real and serious issues in the presidential debates issues that have to do with the survival of the american economic ecosystem. given the state of our media now hold my breath but matey. if enough of you let the media know you'd like to hear a real debate on reaganomics and the damage it's done and how romney both profited from it and wants to double down on maybe just maybe we can have that conversation here in america. and that's the way it is tonight tuesday october second two thousand and twelve for more information in the stories we covered visit our website at thom hartmann dot com free speech dot org dot com and if you missed any of that i'd show you can now watch it in h.d. on hulu at hulu dot com slash big picture also check out our two you tube channels there are links over thom hartmann dot com also there you can check out all the different ways you can send us feedback or message boards blogs telephone feedback

line all kinds of stuff. and don't forget democracy begins with you get out there get active tag your it civil. wealthy british scientists i. guess what i'm not so much go back on right now the.

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